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Photo: Anu Pushkarna

FOOD AND FITNESS Rahul Dholakia at InterContinental The Grand in New Delhi

Rahul is convalescing from a foot surgery, so he is on a controlled diet. “It is all thanks to Parzania. I developed stress-related diabetes. Now once you get it, it never goes away, you can just control it. Some time back I hurt my foot. The doctor said it is nothing serious. But because of the diabetes it didn’t heal and the infection started spreading. Then I went to my family surgeon and he suggested immediate surgery else I would have lost my foot. I was in bed for three months.”

“During this period I was not allowed to gain weight, so I was on boiled chicken and corn and lots of tea and nariyal pani. It is only recently that I have returned to a normal diet.” The three months in bed gave Rahul the opportunity to work on his next script which veers around the Kashmir problem. “The basic story is about a suicide bomber. Sanjay Dutt has been signed but the research has opened up so many fresh perspectives — involving the CIA, ISI, Al Qaeda — that I am still working on it.” Is too much research bad? Laughs Rahul, “Not really. It is when the editors come into the picture. The director should not be too possessive about the subject. Like in the first draft of Parzania, I had scenes like rioters playing cricket with the skulls. When Naseer read it, he said we don’t need it for this will put off people. I got the point and though there is a 13-minute riot scene, we haven’t shown a single drop of blood.”

Talking of backlash, Rahul, meanwhile, trying out the dry fruits, says he is particularly happy that the NRIs have taken the film in a positive way. “I have Gujarati friends in New Jersey who used to cross Shah Rukh’s pictures and some of them were so rabid as to tear apart sofas just because they were green in colour. When such people have commented that there is a need for dialogue after watching the film, I feel contented.” Now he is dubbing the film in Hindi.

Having studied filmmaking in the U.S., Rahul is trying to bring in the Hollywood way of filmmaking in more ways than one. Sipping his tea after a helping of dry fruits, he says, “In Hollywood, the work on the sets is much more defined. There the first assistant director is happy doing the job of AD, but here the AD wants to become director as soon as possible, so he wants to get cosy with the star and the producer.” He continues, “Then take food, I have worked on so many documentaries in different parts of the world, but I have never found different kinds of food for the cast and the crew. Here there are three categories of food, and the person who serves it, whispers in your ear that you have an extra piece of chicken. I did away with this practice on my sets.” But the freedom doesn’t always work. “My fellow writer David liked the samosas so much that he had to be hospitalised and when we went to see him, he was still eating samosas!”

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